How many TDs have spoken Irish in Dáil Éireann in the past year?

On yesterday's The Week in Politics, newly minted Minister for
Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht was quizzed by host Áine Lawlor on
her own grasp of Gaeilge. Madigan confessed that, while she has a little
bit of Irish, she hadn't engaged with the language since her Leaving
Certificate thirty years ago. Asked if she might re-learn the language
now that she holds the Gaeltacht portfolio, the minister replied that
while she would "probably" try to improve, she would not make a promise
to study it.

Given that she is the minister responsible
for the promotion of the Irish language, Madigan's comments caused a
bit of a stir. The simple fact is, however, that she is far from the
only TD who has had little engagement with the language. While a survey
of TDs' knowledge of Irish would likely only result in the answers they
would like to give, I decided to do some quick research into the Dáil debate archives in order to find out how many sitting TDs have spoken Irish in the Dáil in the past twelve months.

In
conducting this search I only counted instances of Irish being used
naturally in place of English. References to the Ceann Comhairle,
including the line "Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle" have been
omitted, as have instances where Irish was only used in brief procedural
language to announce a motion or to declare whether a vote passed or
was defeated.

Of the 158 sitting members of the Dáil, only 37 have spoken Irish during parliamentary business in the past year.